Entering Year Two of Locdome

I am so excited to be completing my first year of Locdome till death do us part... I think back to 2002 when I first went natural for the second and last time. I was always admiring locs but never had the determination or commitment to get them... plus I looooved my loose hair. Adored it even. I loved my afro puff, and chunky twistouts... over the years I'd even learned to love my hair in twists, boxbaids and the occasional extension hairstyle or cornrowed style. It was so much fun... and I would find myself saying, "locs aren't versatile enough for me... I could never get them cause then what can you do with them?" The answer is: a lot! Granted my babies are just starting to get that "drape" affect, but I am already seeing the flexibility. It helps that my locs have plumped up to be a really good size from my little comb coils I first began with. And it's nice to feel my hair moving and blowing in the wind. I never experienced that when I was fried out (relaxed). My hair would get to a certain length and stop. I've already surpassed it with my natural, healthy, God-given mane. And I look forward to all the up do's and pin-ups and curly loc styles I can stand. I still haven't yet decided how long I will let them get, or when I will color again... but trust me that the possibilities are endless. Do we have our days where they are rude and unruly? Sure... I mean, look whose head they're on! :)

But I can truly say that I have enjoyed every minute of it. And my hair is a true representation of who I am.. natural, wild, easily tamed, and beautiful. I went to the My Black Is Beautiful tour yesterday. And despite being a little poorly organized it was great just to be around like-minded sisters who care about our health, hair, skin and love... I saw locs to die and envy for and got so excited about the journey to come. It's been fun to learn new things about my hair and how to care for it that I didn't do well when I was a loose-hair nappy.

I mean, I maintain my own locs! That is huge for me ya'll... the little tomboy who still doesn't know how to cornrow... the girl who had to practice just to learn how to two-strand twist her hair! Craazy. So it's a thrill to be here for me. And now that cowrie shells and tams and headbands and ponytails are starting to take flight... whew... I'm just excited. Happy to have a head of healthy, NATURAL, hair. Growing as it should be without unhealthy manipulation or assimilation to how they think my hair should look. I cherish you today, hair. And everyday.

This follows along with this blog because we all need to be healthy from the inside out. And this includes our hair. If our hair is healthy, that is sayin a lot about the inside, what we're feeding ourselves, and how it's coming out of us via hair follicles and our skin. Even though, my skin has been going through a thang lately, but I digress.

At any rate, about to get out and go for my five-mile walk and then I have to put in some work later for a new contract I picked up for June. Yay... forward!

So, I am in love with my hair. Who knew it would take a hairdo to really cement what I had been telling people for four years!?

The picture on the right is my hair close-up. Are you my hair twin? My texture can be a bia, but I love it the same. The pic is at 2.5 weeks. I love how the tips of my braids have coiled into each other. I will post a pic of them the first day I got them done and you can see how the ends were puffy. The pic on the left is my hair today at officially three weeks. I must say my hair still looks great to me. I was originally going to keep these in for 6 weeks, but as I look at my braids, I am not quite sure that will work. While Trina would be ecstatic, I am not quite ready to loc my hair. Don't know if I will ever be seeing as how with this PSC (protective style challenge) through spring I am too geeked to see my BAA (big ass afro) come summer. :)

At any rate, in other updates the mister seems to be finally on board with getting in shape as well. Not that he really needs it, since ya'll know they could eat a whole cow and not gain nearly as much as we do, but I digress. We went to do some running this past weekend and stopped to get some workout equipment and some vitamins for us. I picked up some GNC Healthy Skin, Hair and Nail vitamins. They contain Biotin (which I have read on more than one occasion is good for healthy growth of all three). After following up with my midwife (yes, I still use my midwife as my PCP for gynecological services so what!) making sure it was safe for me to take while nursing, I started taking them today in addition to my daily vitamin.

My hair and skin are doing pretty well as is right now, I drink a LOT of water daily and I think that in addition to the exercise and fresh produce is playing a strong role. But the vitamin couldn't hurt right? In addition, I am soaking off my gel overlay over my natural nail and seeing what the vitamin can do for those. I will have them cut down some b/c after removing the gel the nail bed is left weak and I am on a computer about 10 hours out of a day -- at least. Not that I ever left much, but I am returning to the true au natural state that is me. I loooove having longer nails, they make my hands look so much more feminine but I don't want to be dependent on the gel and it will cut down on my monthly costs considerably getting manicures instead of fill-ins with my pedicure. :)

As you can see, my ticker says I am down 6.6 pounds as of Friday's weigh in. Loves that. And I am 10 pounds shy of hitting my 10% goal of weight loss. It's all quite exciting. I am resuming Turbo Jam this week. Again shooting for 5 straight days of activity. Yesterday, I did Ab Jam and 20-Minute. A nice start to the week after some days off over the weekend.

My goal in the next two-to-three weeks is to BUTTON my fave jean. They currently slide up, but buttoning not so much. lol

OK, a longer than normal post as an update. I'm gonna try to do better at updating this thing everyday -- like a REAL journal of sorts.